


The Hellmouth Collection

by yourcrookedheart



Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Drabble Collection, F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, so many pairings and characters, some more ridiculous than others
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-28
Updated: 2018-03-01
Packaged: 2018-12-08 04:52:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 5,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11639310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourcrookedheart/pseuds/yourcrookedheart
Summary: Collection of drabbles for various canon and non-canon pairings in the Buffyverse. Ranging from 100, 150 to 200 words.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is an ongoing collection, being updated whenever I feel inspired. Five drabbles per chapter, there's no particular structure to this.

_Failure (Riley Finn/Drusilla)_

“She never loved you at all, did she?”

Her hands wrap around his upper arms, piercing the thin material there and leaving small pricks in his skin that well with blood, black in the darkness.

“Poor boy, lost and adrift.”

She rests her head on his shoulder, lips brushing his ear, unsettling for the lack of warm breath. He shivers.

“Shall I kiss it better?”

It’s not Buffy’s fault, he knows. Buffy, whose blind determination he has always admired. He’s the one who failed her, not the other way around.

Still, the resentment bubbles inside him. He bares his neck.

  
\---

_  
Damsel (Xander Harris/Robin Wood)_

Xander’s hands are shaking around the cross he ripped from the wall. He’d feel a little more worried about destroying church property if it weren’t for the army of vampires currently banging against the large oaken doors. As it is, he’s sure God will turn a blind eye just this once.

There’s a flurry of high-pitched shrieks outside, then a crash as the doors fly open. Robin stands in the doorway, silhouetted by moonlight and the dust still drifting to the earth.

“Do you always play the damsel around here?” he grins.

Xander refuses to dignify that with a response.

  
\---

_  
At The Movies (Caleb/Holtz)_

On screen, Keira Knightley presses her lips to Andrew Lincoln, then smiles and runs back to her husband. Caleb makes an exasperated noise.

“ _Women_ ,” is all he say.

Against his better judgment, Holtz leans closer and frowns at Caleb. “Hm?”

“Seducing men with their feminine wiles, smirking and prancing –” Holtz sighs and settles deeper into his seat “– flaunting everything that belongs to God and God only. As the Bible states –”

“Some of us are trying to watch the movie, dude,” a man hisses from the row behind them.

Holtz decides 21st century dating just isn’t for him.

  
\---

_  
The Beach (Nina Ash/Eve)_

It started as a way of getting back at Angel – ending what Lindsey started.

Eve doesn’t remember what her plan was, or if she had a plan in the first place. Only that she wanted to hurt Angel for what he did to her beloved.

Somewhere along the way, that turned into seducing Angel’s girlfriend.

Somewhere along the way, that turned into another thing entirely.

It ends on an exotic beach, with Eve tracing the lines of Nina’s bikini, brushing the sand off her sun-kissed skin. Eve grins. As far as revenge missions go, she’ll count this one a success.

  
\---

_  
Into The Void (Xander Harris/Faith Lehane)_

“It demands a sacrifice.” Wes sounds weary as they all stare at the pulsating mass of black smoke that is inhaling everything that’s left of the desert wasteland previously named California, save for the few survivors protected by Willow’s spell.

“A human sacrifice,” Faith replies, her voice devoid of any emotion. She glances at Xander and brushes his arm briefly with the tips of her fingers.

“Hey, how bad can the void be?” She shrugs, full of bravado that Xander has decided is at least part real.

Maybe one day Xander will get used to losing girlfriends to the supernatural.


	2. Chapter 2

_Friends (Illyria & Harmony Kendall)_

“And then Angel’s all ‘Harmony, I told you to cancel that meeting’ and I’m like, ‘uhhh no you didn’t, cause I’d remember that’. Like I’m an idiot or something?”

Illyria cocks her head.

“So then he frowns, you know, with his eyebrows.” The vampire scrunches her face. It does not resemble Angel at all, Illyria thinks.

“What is the purpose of this story?”

The vampire fidgets. She is – nervous, Illyria’s mind offers.

“Oh, I just thought we could, you know, be friends.”

 _Friends_. The Fred in Illyria’s head smiles at that.

“Friends.”

Harmony nods, and holds out a box. “Donut?”

  
\---  
 

_Carpe Noctem (Buffy Summers & Tara Maclay)_

Buffy senses the vampire before she sees her. She experiences a split second of annoyance – she’d been about to wrap up patrol, can’t these vampires stick to a reasonable schedule?

That feeling doesn’t last long. It’s the blonde hair that catches her eye first, partly obscuring a face that sends chills through Buffy’s body for its familiarity.

“Tara?”

“Long time no see.”

It’s not Tara, of course. The vampire wears a smirk Buffy never saw on Tara’s face while she was alive.

“Come on, I know you like vampires.”

Willow returns in two weeks. Buffy vows to never tell her.

  
\---

_  
London Rain (Wesley Wyndham-Pryce/Ethan Rayne)_

The English weather is miserable this time of year, rain drumming a steady beat against the windowpane. Lying comfortably in bed, with a warm body next to him, Ethan finds it soothing.

Falling in love with someone else is something Ethan gave up on a long time ago, but then he figures a Watcher is a Watcher is a Watcher – disgraced or not – and he’s never been one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Ethan watches Wesley’s sleeping form and imagines another man. He figures it’s a forgivable sin, considering Wes’ own penchant for sleeping with the enemy.

  
\---  
 

_Sunnydale Weekly (Faith Lehane & Cordelia Chase)_

“So how’s that obsession with Buffy working out for you?”

Faith shoots Cordelia a glare. “Jealous I slept with your boyfriend before you did?”

“ _Ex_ -boyfriend. I’m so over Xander Harris. If you want my cast-offs, don’t let me stop you.”

“So you decided to downgrade to loser wannabe-Giles?”

“He’s classy! Of course, you wouldn’t understand. So tell me, which name did Xander say in bed, mine, Willow’s, or Buffy’s? _Actually_ , which did you?”

Giles slams his book shut.

“Thank you for the update on the dating life of the Sunnydale High population. Now will you please go argue somewhere else?”

   
\---  
  


_Freshmen (Dawn Summers/Connor)_

First day at UCLA, and she’s already late. Dawn hurries through the hallway, dodging groups of loitering students and keeping an eye out for the auditorium.

She’s no good at multitasking, that’s the only reason she bumps into the guy.

Dawn takes a moment to appreciate the cinematic beauty of running into a handsome boy who is most definitely destined to be her soulmate, when she notices the stake that rolled out of her bag.

At the exact same time the guy does.

They regard one another in tense silence, until he breaks it.

“So, fighting vampires, huh?”

Definitely her soulmate.


	3. Chapter 3

_Control (Kendra Young/Cordelia Chase)_

Cordelia walks into the library as if it’s a runway; short top, shorter skirt, tall boots. Kendra feels her heartbeat quicken the way it did the first few times she fought a vampire, before her Watcher taught her to regulate it through diligent training. Control. Kendra’s whole life has been about control. Her thoughts, her desires. Yet Sam Zabuto never thought to prepare her for facing an opponent like Cordelia Chase.

Long legs stretched on the table, the short skirt riding up even further. For Xander’s benefit, Kendra thinks, until Cordelia catches her eyes and slowly, deliberately, winks at her.

  
\---  
 

_Type (Darla/Buffy Summer)_

“Five years, and you’re still all he can talk about. What is it about you that drives Angelus crazy, Buffy Summers? What makes you so special?” Darla slinks closer, movements still as lithe now that she’s human.

“I could tell you, but I think I’d rather show my skills the physical way,” Buffy volleys back.

Seven months later, lying in a sunlit patch on a bed in a small Sunnydale apartment paid for by Wolfram & Hart, Buffy still swears up and down she didn’t mean it  _quite_  that way.

In her defense, she never could resist a conflicted vampire.

  
\---

 

_Memory (Rupert Giles/Jenny Calendar)_

He doesn’t get rid of the bed. Simply moves his clutter to the other bedside table, and sleeps on the left side from that time onwards.

Months later, he still can’t go to sleep without seeing her lying there, eyes wide and hollow. It’s his own form of self-imposed penance, he supposes. Forcing himself to remember, because someone should.

After Buffy dies, when he finally sells the house, there’s a small part of him that feels relieved. Letting go of Buffy is difficult. Letting go of Sunnydale and all its painful memories? Perhaps that’s something he should have done years ago.

  
\---  
 

_The Game (Angelus/Xander Harris)_

Once upon a time – though, well, he remembers, it was 1897 – Angelus took a young man under his wing. Fair-skinned, eyes dark with their hunger for power, the youth showed great promise, until Darla tired of him and staked him herself.

In the moonlight, the boy bears more than a passing resemblance.

“Does the Slayer know?” The boy’s eyes flicker towards the end of the alley. “That you want her lover about as much as you want her?”

Angelus lets him run. It’s not sentiment for a childe long dead. It’s just that drawing out the game brings greater pleasure.

   
\---  
  


_Friendship (Riley Finn & Tara Maclay)_

When Willow reveals her and Tara’s relationship to her friends, it’s Riley who’s the first to approach Tara.

“They’re a little intimidating, right?” He lounges next to her on Giles’ sofa and hands Tara a glass of water. “All that unconditional I-would-die-for-you type of friendship. All sorta new for me.”

Tara watches as Willow laughs at something Buffy said, unbridled and easy.

“It’s new for me too,” is all she says.

Riley hums. “You think we’ll ever be part of that?”

Tara doesn’t reply, and they sit in companionable silence, watching as the others go through their demon research routines.


	4. Chapter 4

_Oysters (Fred Burkle/Anya Jenkins)_

There’s a million places a newly single ex-demon could go after a failed wedding. The world is her oyster, as Shakespeare would say. So naturally Anya ends up in LA, clutching the address of an abandoned hotel scribbled in Willow’s spidery scrawl.

She’s welcomed at the door by a slip of a girl, innocuousness offset by the vicious-looking crossbow at her side.

LA isn’t the world. Anya could have gone to Jamaica, spent her days on a sandy white beach. Maybe France, Cambodia.

None of those countries have Fred Burkle, though. And maybe the oyster can just be a person.

 

\---

 

_Trespassing (Principal Snyder/Drusilla)_

“Look, miss, I’m going to have to ask you to leave the school grounds.”

Drusilla twirls her hand, extends one long finger towards the darkened sky. “The stars.”

“Yes, yes, the stars. Now, I don’t believe you work here, so if you could just accompany me to the gate –”

“Do you know who I am?”

“A lady who’s about to have a problem on her hands if she doesn’t leave.”

Large blue eyes shift to a luminous yellow.

A swallow. “The one time you need Buffy Summers, she’s not there.”

Drusilla grins, and her white fangs reflect the moonlight.

 

\---

 

_Theories on the multiverse (Lilah Morgan/Rupert Giles)_

In another universe, Lilah Morgan is sent to Sunnydale to handle the case of a client involved in demon claw trafficking. She ends up at a bar that serves watered-down versions of her preferred cocktails. Still, the sidecar isn’t terrible, and neither is the handsome man covering The Kinks next to the stairs.

In another universe, Lilah takes the man to her hotel room, spends a pleasant night tangled in sweaty sheets. Lilah takes the next case that requires traveling to Sunnydale. And the next.

In another universe, a knife pierces Gavin Park’s throat, and Lilah burrows further into a warm body.

 

\---

 

_Aftermath (Wesley Wyndam-Pryce & Willow Rosenberg)_

Willow yelps when she wakes up one night and sees a man standing next to her bed, cloaked in shadows. Then she yelps again, for good measure, when the man steps into the light and Willow recognizes Wesley. Wesley, who is dead.

“Sorry for the, uhm…” he motions at nothing in particular. “Time zones are still a bit confusing.”

“You’re – but you’re – dead! Angel called –”

“Yes, well, it’s complicated. Willow, I need your help. Illyria –” The pillow hits him on the side of his face. Not The First then.

“Sorry, force of habit.” Willow shrugs. “You were saying?”

 

\---

 

_Shower (Dawn Summers/Faith Lehane)_

Dawn pushes her way into the bathroom, then freezes. Faith is there, still damp from a shower, water droplets sliding down her neck and shoulders and disappearing into the towel wrapped around her body.

“Hey, you need anything?” Faith brushes a hand through her wet hair, and Dawn watches as the towel slips an inch, revealing the cleft between Faith’s breasts. Faith catches her gaze, and lifts a single eyebrow.

It’s as close an invitation as she’ll get, Dawn supposes. After weeks of furtive looks and not-so-accidental brushes of skin, with an apocalypse hanging over their heads, the timing has never seemed more perfect. So she leads Faith back into the shower, pushes her against the wall, kisses her way down Faith’s toned stomach marred by silvery white scars (and Dawn very resolutely doesn’t think about how Faith got one of those in particular), then lower.

Really, they’re saving water.


	5. Chapter 5

_Male bonding (Robin Wood/Xander Harris)_

In Xander’s defense, he hadn’t had a close male friend in a long time.

He and Robin were whittling stakes, Xander laughing at his own joke, when he noticed Robin staring at him, a strange, calculating look on his face. And then Robin was leaning over, and kissing him and – whoa.  _ Whoa _ , what?

Robin pulled back. “Okay, am I missing something here? Cause I’ve been flirting with you for the past few weeks, and I could’ve sworn you were flirting back.”

_ Flirting _ ? Sure, maybe if Robin had been a girl, what they’d been doing might’ve been considered flirting. But between two strictly heterosexual men... huh. So maybe Xander had misinterpreted their male bonding. Just a little.

Robin was frowning, and that made Xander’s stomach turn. The only solution seemed to be kissing him again.

Male friendship would remain a mystery to Xander. But sudden sexual encounters? That he could do.

 

\---

 

_Chez Xander (Harmony Kendall & Xander Harris)_

“She needs a place to stay.”

Xander shoots Willow a look that he hopes suggests maiming at the very least. “Okay, first of all, there’s a charming cemetery four blocks from here with lots of nice little crypts. Secondly, I am  _ not _ providing free housing for yet another peroxided vampire.”

“Hey, I’m a natural blonde!” Harmony huffs and crosses her arms over her chest. “I won’t bite you. I mean, not unless you ask –”

Xander holds up his hands. “I’m gonna pretend I didn’t hear that.”

“Sooo… I can stay?”

Willow smiles encouragingly.

“Fine. But no biting. Under any circumstances.”

 

\---

 

_A match made in hell (Anya Jenkins/Lilah Morgan)_

Hell, as it turns out, is a small grey condo with leaky faucets and no cable. Anya realizes she’s done some bad things in her life, but she’s not sure any of it was awful enough to deserve this.

She’s been there for no less than five minutes, still cursing Cordelia Chase and Buffy and Xander and everyone who led her to Sunnydale and kept her there, when there’s a knock on the door. On the other side is a handsome woman, smiling cheerily and holding out a cake.

“Thought I’d welcome the newbie to the neighborhood.” The woman breezes in without waiting for a response. “Anya, right? Ex-vengeance demon?”

Anya briefly considers throwing her out, then catches the enticing scent coming from the cake.  _ Cinnamon apple _ . Anya breathes in deeply, and the woman’s smile widens.

“And you are?”

“Lilah Morgan, ex-evil lawyer. I think we’re going to get along.”

 

\---

 

_The proposal (Mayor Wilkins & Xander Harris)_

“You see, Xander, I could use a partner in this endeavor.” Mayor Wilkins folds his arms on his desk and smiles invitingly at Xander. “I see great potential in you. Potential that your parents, your friends, don’t see.”

“Potential?” When Xander left for class this morning, he didn’t think the day was going to end in a job offer.

“You’re a special boy. But your friends, they just think you’re useless, don’t they? Did Buffy’s Watcher ever even offer to train you?” The Mayor leans forward. “I’d train you.”

Xander takes a cookie from the offered plate, and considers the sales pitch.

 

\---

 

_Crush (Jonathan Levinson/Dawn Summers)_

Dear diary,

You’ll never believe who just came by our house. Jonathan! He was here and he totally said hi to me! Just wait until Janice hears of this, she’ll be so jealous. I should’ve asked for an autograph but I was so overwhelmed. He’s just  so handsome in real life. Like JC Chasez, only way cooler.

And he saved Buffy from a demon! That’s why he was here, he wanted to make sure she got home safely. So gallant.

Anyway, I gotta go. I’m pretty sure Xander stole my Jonathan poster, and I really want it back.

Love, Dawn


	6. Chapter 6

_Teaming up (Dracula/Willow Rosenberg)_

Willow doesn’t do vampires – or men these days, for that matter – but if she did… well, Dracula would be pretty high on her list. With the sharp cheekbones and the glossy dark hair and the mesmerizingly blue eyes, and… Dracula grins at her as if he’s read her mind. Which, damn it, he probably did, being a mythical vampire.

“So, Bram Stoker?” she asks, in an effort to distract him.

Dracula seems amused by her question. “He was… what do you call this. A ghostwriter, yes?” His eyes suddenly shimmer a pale gold, and Willow feels a warmth spread through her. “Now you tell me, witch. How would you like living in a castle?”

A castle sounds nice. A castle with a handsome vampire sounds even nicer, except –

“Hey, enough with the hypno-eyes! We’re only teaming up this once.” She points a warning finger at his chest. He only grins.

 

\---

 

_Revelations (Rupert Giles/Glory)_

“So Giles, how exactly did you figure out Ben was Glory?” Buffy tightens the knots on the rope tying an unconscious Ben to a chair as Willow chants a binding spell.

“Err, well, it’s – it’s quite a long story, really.” Giles attempts to avoid Buffy’s inquisitive gaze.

“We’ve got time.”

Giles remembers how the woman had flirted with him in the Magic Box, slid her phone number across the counter. How he’d called her up that night, landed in bed with her. How he’d woken up next to Ben.

Buffy is still staring at him.

“Maybe another time,” he says.

 

\---

 

_Comings and goings (Buffy Summers & Rupert Giles)_

There’s an apartment in Bath that still has a lease in Giles’ name. He’d meant to terminate it when they arrived in Cleveland, but he’d been busy trying to wrangle a dozen traumatized slayers and fending off calls from a furious Roger Wyndam-Pryce.

Two years on, and he’s still paying for an apartment on the other side of the world.

“Do you ever think of going back?” Buffy asks, and he thinks of the pile of paperwork on his desk seeming more tedious each day, and the key to an empty apartment in his wallet.

“I’m here now,” he says. It’s not an answer, and he’s not sure why he bothers when he’s convincing neither of them.

Five months and three apocalypses later finds him in the hospital, alive through what the doctors call a minor miracle. He’s thinking of Bath when Buffy walks in and drops an envelope into his lap.

Plane tickets. Two of them, Cleveland-London. No return.

Buffy holds out the key that’s been in his wallet for the past two years and a half.

“I’ll pay rent and everything. Just – let’s just go.”

This time when he leaves, he doesn’t feel like he’s leaving something behind.

 

\---

 

_Repetition compulsion (Spike/Riley Finn)_

Freud would call this repetition compulsion. Riley remembers the class, wrote the essay.

A woman who doesn’t need him, and a vampire who does. Second verse, same as the first. This time the woman is his wife, and the vampire’s no random junkie, but apart from that nothing much has changed. Or at least, he hasn’t.

Spike doesn’t look up when he enters the apartment, only slides over the bottle of single malt. Fresh blood tastes better mixed with alcohol, or so Spike claims.

Knowing the psychological pattern doesn’t prevent Riley from indulging in it. And so history repeats itself.

 

\---

 

_Cajamarca, Peru (Oz/Dawn Summers)_

Cajamarca, Peru is one of the last places Dawn expects to run into someone she knows, but there, at a small bustling market place, she spots the familiar face of Oz. His hair is back to its natural red, a little longer than the last time Dawn saw him, tips just barely brushing his jaw. He smiles when he notices her.

They hike to Cumbemayo to watch the sunset after he’s helped her find the stone chakana she came for, and under the reddish sky Oz’ hair almost seems like it’s on fire. Dawn leans back and watches it burn.


	7. Chapter 7

_Comparing notes (Charles Gunn & Robin Wood)_ **_  
_ **

“And then Cordelia got pregnant with Angel’s son’s child, but it wasn’t really Cordelia and the kid turned out to be a goddess trying to mojo the world into forced peace and love.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah.”

“So, the superhuman misogynist priest doesn’t sound all that impressive anymore.”

“No man, it was a great story.”

“You don’t have to make me feel better about it.”

Robin leans his head back against the couch and grins at Gunn. “Our lives sound crazy when you put it like that.”

“Yeah. Hey, did I tell you about the time Angel got turned into a puppet?”

 

\---

 

 _Revision (Spike/Xander Harris)_ **_  
_ **

“You know what, I’m done. Buffy can whine about it all she wants, but I’m putting this stake through your heart right now.” Xander brandishes the weapon in Spike’s face.

“Oh, please, do it. Free me from having to listen to you heroes yammer on about saving the world every bloody minute.”

Spike’s not sure how it happens, only one minute he’s bracing against a piercing pain, and the next he has Xander Harris in his arms, kissing him with a fervor he’d have never thought him capable of before this moment.

“God, Xander, I love y–”

Spike jolts awake with a gasp. 

“Oh, bollocks.”

 

\---

 

_If the phone doesn’t ring, it’s me (Angel/Buffy Summers)_

Angel calls her the evening before the battle with the Circle of the Black Thorn in Los Angeles. The battle he’d provoked, and Buffy yells at him for an hour for that. In the end he only offers her an insincere apology and tells her he’ll call after it’s all over with news. 

He doesn’t call the next evening, nor the one after that. Buffy realizes she’s checking her phone more often than usual when Willow starts shooting her worried looks, but she can’t make herself stop.

In the end, he doesn’t call. Buffy supposes in a way, that’s news as well.

 

\---

 

 _Summer nights (Faith Lehane/Buffy Summers)_

It’s 2 a.m. and Buffy, newly single, is dancing with a stylish Italian. Through the thrum of partygoers Faith watches the way her shirt rides up to expose her stomach, tanned from a few days of lounging on the Amalfi coast. Her hips sway to the slow and sultry beat. Faith hasn’t been dancing tonight, but still her top is sticking to her skin, and there’s a guy at the other end of the bar who keeps trying to catch her gaze, and she just wants to go home.

Buffy’s dancing, and Faith’s in love. It always seems to come back to this.

 

\---

 

_Precipice (Rupert Giles/Ethan Rayne)_

Ethan’s face is blurred through the smoke curling from the dried salvia leaves. The fumes go straight to Ripper’s head, which is the only reason his eyes keep flickering to Ethan’s lips, and the only reason he’s wondering what it would be like to kiss him, just once.

Ethan smirks like he’s read Ripper’s mind, mouths a few words in Latin that make flames flare up and a chill travel down Rippers back. And then the fire settles down, and it’s just the two of them in a dingy room, and when Ethan leans over to press his lips to Ripper’s own, he doesn’t fight it.


	8. Chapter 8

_Ruby-red (Faith Lehane/Joyce Summers)_ _  
_

Faith drags the ruby-red lipstick across the bow of her top lip and pouts at her reflection in the mirror. It’s a sexy color. Who knew Joyce had sexy lipstick?

Joyce, who is watching Faith with a disapproving frown on her face.

Well fuck her. And fuck Buffy for getting the mom who cares about whether her daughter comes home safe at the end of the night.

Faith shrugs into her jacket and leans across the bed, drags her lips against the edge of Joyce’s jaw so that it leaves a faint smudge.

“Thanks for letting me borrow the lipstick.”

  


**_\---_ **

 

 _Moving on (Angel/Robin Wood)_ ****_  
_

“Buffy, are you alright?” Angel looks vaguely uncomfortable, like he’s unsure whether to reach out or pack up and move to Hawaii.

Buffy wipes a tear from the corner of her eye and looks from Angel to Robin, then back again. “You’re kidding, right?”

Robin shrugs when Angel shoots him an alarmed look.

“I didn’t know how to tell you, but I – we didn’t want to hide. I never expected to love again after you, but then –”

Buffy clutches her belly as bursts of laughter shake her frame again. “Alright, stop, I’m getting cramps. Explain this again over drinks.”

 

\---

 

 _Roman holiday (Buffy Summers/Eve)_

Eve had always wanted to go to Rome.

Once upon a time she’d entertained romantic visions of marrying Lindsey in one of the beautiful ancient churches. Standing in front of one of them right now, camera in hand like all the other tourists, that memory only brings a dull ache.

Her phone rings.

“Faith and I are going in, keep watch.” And so Eve watches as a blonde girl slips past the line of people waiting to enter the church, and emerges ten minutes later carrying a small package under her arm.

It’s not quite a wedding in Rome, but it’ll do.

 

\---

 

 _Proposition (Willow Rosenberg & Drusilla)_ ****_  
_

The witch’s eyes are huge and black, staring out from a pale face. If Drusilla didn’t know any better, she’d think the girl had been turned. But then, if she’d been turned, she wouldn’t be here.

“Can you do it?” the witch demands. The air around her crackles with energy, and Drusilla shivers pleasantly.

“Bad witch. Shouldn’t mess with these things.”

“Can. You. Do it.” It’s not a question anymore.

Drusilla imagines the pure, raw power coursing through the girl’s blood. The unstoppable force of a witch turned vampire. She trails one long finger along the girl’s neck, and beckons.

 

\---

 

 _Last night on earth (Buffy Summers/Robin Wood)_ ****_  
_

“What are you doing?” Robin watches Buffy from the doorway, hunched over a map of Sunnydale High.

“Going over the plan one more time.”

“You should go to bed.”

Buffy huffs out a breath, amused. “Pot, kettle.”

“Yeah, maybe. I guess we’re all keyed up.” He walks up to her and rests his hands on her shoulders. Her skin radiates heat underneath the flimsy top she’s wearing, and he pushes it down her shoulders to massage her neck, digging into the tense muscle. She sighs.

“Let me rephrase that. Come to bed.”

She’s silent as she gets up and pushes him onto the mattress.


	9. Chapter 9

_Truth or something like it (Willow Rosenberg/Oz)_

The wolf is always with him, coursing along his skin and growling beneath every word. He told Willow about that once, and she asked if that was the reason he didn’t talk much. The truth is, it both is and isn’t.

Truth. When Oz burrows his face into Willow’s hair and smells coconut, it fills him with a deep warmth that reminds him of lazy summer days.

Truth. The wolf smells coconut and thinks: prey.

Oz burrows in further and hums. “Your hair smells nice,” he tells her, and gets a blinding smile in return.

It’s the truth. Or close enough, anyway.

 

\---

 

_To-Be or Not-To-Be (Tara Maclay/Anya Jenkins)_

“What do you mean, ‘Xander’s missing’? He can’t be missing, we’re getting married!”

Anya’s voice has reached a desperate, panicked pitch, and Tara is entirely unsure of how to deal with the fluttering hands and wide eyes of the bride-to-be. Or not-to-be. Her and Tara aren’t friends, despite being part of the same friends group. If they were, Tara might’ve had a talk with Anya weeks ago about where this wedding was most likely going. Anya looks so sad, though, that Tara can’t bring herself to think of it in terms like that.

If it were Tara getting married to Anya, she’d never leave her at the altar.

But that’s a different subject and not something that would cheer Anya up at the moment, so when Anya sinks down onto the couch, Tara joins her and stills Anya’s nervously jittering hands with her own.

 

\---

 

_Alternative (Buffy Summers/Lilah Morgan)_

“We’ve gotta stop meeting like this,” Buffy gasps out as Lilah’s hand burrows her way underneath her skirt, nails skimming along the inside of her thighs and leaving fiery trails in their wake.

“ _Au contraire_. I’m pretty sure this is the only way we should be meeting,” Lilah says before her head ducks down, in between Buffy’s legs so all that remains visible is brown hair fanning out across her bare shoulders. For a second the image is so strikingly familiar that Buffy gasps. Lilah takes it as encouragement, presses harder, deeper, until Buffy can only throw her head back and ride the waves. Imagines the hands pressing into her thighs are not Lilah’s, but stronger ones, fingers that could leave bruises.

“You look good like that.” Lilah’s voice brings Buffy back to reality, trading dark eyes for blue.

Faith’s in jail. Maybe Buffy needs to work on remembering that.

 

\---

 

_Performance review (Lilah Morgan/Dawn Summers)_

Lilah can’t remember having had an assistant more eager to please than Dawn Summers: determined, dedicated, meticulous — everything that looks good on a performance review. So many skills that could prove useful to Wolfram & Hart, yet none of them quite so valuable as her ability to follow orders. Even her few acts of defiance have an edge of deference; throwing cases out of a sense of morality that Lilah can already tell no amount of training is going to deprogram, but also, in part, because she knows Lilah appreciates a little spice in her employees.

Determined. Dedicated. Meticulous. Lilah watches Dawn kneel on the gleaming hardwood floor and mentally reassesses the performance review; contemplates that it’s a shame she can’t add these little interludes as illustrations of Dawn’s effectiveness.

This is Dawn’s rebellion, and it figures that her turn to the dark side would take the form of impeccable acolyte.

 

\---

 

_Teenage dream (Wesley Wyndam-Pryce/Xander Harris)_

For the first few weeks after Wesley arrives in Sunnydale, Xander watches Cordelia watch him, and starts compiling a list of reasons to hate the guy. A few weeks after that, it’s turned into Xander simply watching Wesley, and the list gains another bullet point.

Really, it’s all downhill from there.

“So this Colgate demon—”

“ _Colegorn_.”

“—How do we kill it?”

Wesley glances from Buffy to the book in his hands. “Well, that is to say… It might require some further research.”

Buffy rolls her eyes. “Oh goody.”

Xander doesn’t mean to. But when Cordelia jumps up to offer her assistance, it takes him about five seconds to volunteer as well.

“Since when do _you_ care about research?” Cordy glares.

“I can be deep,” Xander retorts, trying to catch Wesley’s eye. He seems entirely oblivious, but then, considering the confused looks from Buffy and Willow, maybe that’s for the best.


End file.
